In today's business environment, the need to send and receive information in a matter of minutes rather than hours or days is an ever increasing requirement. Because this need exists, the use of facsimile data and image transmission is one of the fastest growing areas of office automation.
Even though facsimile provides the capability to send and receive information quickly, there are at least two shortcomings associated with the conventional facsimile apparatus and the associated transmission and reception of data and images. The first shortcoming concerns the reception of confidential information and the second shortcoming concerns the notification of the individual that facsimile information has arrived and the delivery of the facsimile information to the individual for whom the facsimile information is intended.
Regarding the first shortcoming which concerns the reception of confidential information, much of this information transmitted and received via facsimile is of a very private and sensitive nature. As this market segment grows, so does the need for confidentiality of this information. In other areas of communication such as mail, envelopes are sealed by the sender to be opened only by the addressee. In voice communication, the telephone line is deemed to provide an acceptable level of confidentiality for most users. In facsimile transmission, however, the facsimile machine will receive and print out the data, message and/or image information (usually in a common or public area because of multiple users) and the designated recipient does not know of the arrival of the facsimile information until notified by the sender or by someone who has read and examined the facsimile information.
Technology existing today which addresses the problem with conventional facsimile equipment is extremely limited. There exists prior art which provides memory for the receipt of facsimile information into storage for later retrieval by the person for whom the information in intended. These machines, however, use a proprietary communication method between the sender's and receiver's equipment. This requirement means the sender must have the same brand facsimile machine if confidential transmission is to take place. If the machines have different manufacturers then confidential transmission into memory can not be accomplished. This restriction imposes a defacto limitation to virtually a closed network of senders and receivers.
There exists a growing need to be able to receive facsimile information into an apparatus capable of storing the facsimile information until the intended recipient is present to receive the information. The present invention eliminates the requirement for the sender and receiver to have the same manufacturer of facsimile machines. This invention will allow the person who has the need to receive confidential information to receive it from any facsimile machine regardless of the make or model of the machine. After the invention has received the facsimile information and stored same into memory, the intended recipient can then identify himself to the inventive apparatus via a special access code which he has selected and then, and only then, will the information be printed out on the facsimile machine.
Regarding the second shortcoming which concerns the notification of and the delivery to the intended recipient the received facsimile information, many times the facsimile information or message arrives but the intended recipient is unaware of its arrival and valuable time is lost. A problem also exists for the person who is not at the location of the receiving facsimile machine. This person could be anyone who spends time away from the office such as a salesman, repairman, businessman who spends time at multiple locations or even the businessman who travels or has left the office for the day. The need exists for a device which will notify the person who has been sent a facsimile message that such a message has been received and then be capable of delivering that facsimile message to another location where the individual is located.
The present invention provides apparatus capable of receiving facsimile data, storing that data in memory, notifying the person to whom the facsimile data was sent and then sending that facsimile data either automatically or on demand to the person to which the facsimile data was addressed.